Liberty Senior Living Uses Dementia Live® to Meet the Challenge of Teaching Empathy in Their Communities

Industry

Technology

Challenge

Liberty Senior Living has 17 communities in five states that are designed for active seniors who have high expectations for living life to the fullest on their own terms. Their community and service offerings combine housing, health care, hospitality, and ancillary services. As a company of communities, they had one specific challenge they wanted to address: Empathy training for their staff and their family caregivers.

Results

Providing Dementia Live training to team members improved employee knowledge and empathy, improved engagement between residents and care partners, and increased understanding of residents experiencing dementia.

Key Product

Dementia Live®

www.libertyseniorliving.com/

This is a life-changing opportunity for our staff, as they get to truly see what someone with dementia may go through on a regular basis. Through completing various tasks, we as a group, are able to distinguish behaviors and expressions that help us to better provide for our residents through understanding them a bit more.

Haley Kinne-Norris

Liberty Senior Living

About Liberty Senior Living

Our community and service offerings combine housing, health care, hospitality, and ancillary services. Our senior living communities offer residents a state-of-the-art home-like setting, assistance with activities of daily living and, in some communities, licensed skilled nursing services. We also provide ancillary services including home health, hospice, in-patient short term rehabilitation, long-term care, and out-patient services to residents in many of our communities as well as seniors living outside of our communities. We allow our residents to “age-in-place” by providing a full range of service options as their needs change.

The Challenge

As a company of communities, they had one specific challenge they wanted to address: Empathy training for their staff and their family caregivers.

The Solution

Haley Kinne-Norris, Regional Wellness/Enrichment Coordinator completed the Dementia Live Coach training in March 2023. She used her newly completed certification first at the home office in Wilmington, North Carolina, where she led key members of the Executive team through Dementia Live.

Receiving strong support for the program from the home office, Haley took the program with her as she engaged in support visits to Liberty communities. At each community, she scheduled and coordinated education events for community staff and resident family care partners. Haley also offered the Dementia Live Experience to residents living in independent living communities as well as coordinated education events for the general public in several locations.

This made me very humble and sympathetic to our seniors who have to deal with this! I think everyone needs to go through this experience.
Staff member, Liberty Senior Living

Key Benefits:

Dementia Live provided a deeper understanding of dementia, helping staff offer more compassionate care.
Skills built enhanced the engagement between residents and their care partners, improving the quality of life for seniors.
Employees gained valuable insights into the challenges faced by individuals living with dementia, leading to more effective caregiving.

Outcomes:

Employee Knowledge and Empathy: Employees experienced a significant increase in empathy and understanding of dementia through the program. They were able to distinguish behaviors and expressions, enabling them to better provide for residents.

Improved Care: The program improved the engagement between residents and their care partners, creating a more empathetic and supportive environment.

Life-Changing Opportunity: Employees described the experience as life-changing, allowing them to see what someone living with dementia goes through daily.

Download the full case study.